For me i sit on a zabuton with a cushion on top being either an old army blanket for the most part but lately been using a zafu as i find it gives me more back support and sometimes i use a seiza bench when sitting for long periods of time. What do you use?

Last edited by bodom on Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

jcsuperstar wrote:i used to use a zafu, now just the floor or a small square thai meditation mat

Thats old school. Taking in back to the Buddhas days.

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

Im slowly easing myself away from the sitting supports to the floor. I need to strengthen my lower back.

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

BBB, Have you tried the buckwheat hull filled zafu. Some friends whose tailbone gave them problems during long sits found the alternative more comfortable than the kapok filled. A particularly nasty encounter with ideopathic neuropathy ended my sitting on the floor. John

mountain wrote:BBB, Have you tried the buckwheat hull filled zafu. Some friends whose tailbone gave them problems during long sits found the alternative more comfortable than the kapok filled. A particularly nasty encounter with ideopathic neuropathy ended my sitting on the floor. John

Mountain, yes that is what i am currently sitting on. It is very supportive but i find i feel more balanced sitting closer to the floor and will try to ease myself off of it. It would be nice to learn to sit on the floor without having to drag my zafu everywhere with me when i could just sit on the floor!

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

Started with a whole beanbag, because I could form it to support my lower back and legs. But after some time I realized I didn't need lower back support, so I used a cheap old couch cushion instead.

The cheap old couch cushion turned into a pancake after a few weeks, because the stuffing was inferior. I turned a few couch cushions into pancakes, then looked around and settled on a Salubrion chair, which offered exactly the right tilt for my body form. But I still had to put a small cushion on top of it, because otherwise it was too hard on my butt. I used my pancakes for that.

Since then I've settled on a nice round cushion filled with natural ingredients. Works fine. I'll usually shove a wadded towel or thin blanket or something under my right leg, because the knee still hovers above floor-level, although the left knee touches down. I find that anything that elevates my butt about 2-3 inches off the floor is enough to allow my back to achieve a natural straight posture. I can do straight on the floor, but it's not really ideal for my body form.

Rain soddens what is kept wrapped up,But never soddens what is open;Uncover, then, what is concealed,Lest it be soddened by the rain.

As Ajahn Brahm in Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond said "The purpose of posture is only to free you from discomfort so that you can let go of the body as soon as possible."

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

As Ajahn Brahm in Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond said "The purpose of posture is only to free you from discomfort so that you can let go of the body as soon as possible."

Good quote, the position i was in before would be painful after about ten minutes but with the zafu and new sitting position my mindfulness now has time to strenghten so when pain comes it doesnt effect my practice anymore.

He who binds to himself a joyDoes the wingèd life destroy;But he who kisses the joy as it fliesLives in eternity's sunrise.

When I was doing a 20-day retreat in New Zealand a few years ago, the guy in the next cell, an ex-pat German, was sitting on a folded blanket!For me, I am getting closer to the ground. I use an Afghan prayer mat and on top of that a futon-style cushion that is nearly squashed flat. I sometimes fold the cushion over to try and elevate my backside so as to sit in half-lotus for extended periods. But with all the moving and unpacking lately, my left knee is giving me some trouble.Cheers

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I used to use the buckwheat zafu/zabuton combination, but my left leg invariably gave out after 20-30 minutes. I jogged about 15 or so miles each week back then (late last summer/fall) and I think that contributed through a combination of things. I now use a seiza bench I made from plans I found online. I put the zabuton on the floor and I made the bench long (wide?) enough so the legs just clear the zabuton. Now I'm good for almost an hour, mostly pain free. Sometimes I have trouble with one of my knees and I'll go back to the zafu for a session. It seems better now than last year, but still nowhere near as good as the bench.

Regards: AdvaitaJ

The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away.We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. Li Bai

This offering maybe right, or wrong, but it is one, the other, both, or neither!Blog,-Some Suttas Translated,Ajahn Chah."Others will misconstrue reality due to their personal perspectives, doggedly holding onto and not easily discarding them; We shall not misconstrue reality due to our own personal perspectives, nor doggedly holding onto them, but will discard them easily. This effacement shall be done."